Technical Note PT540

Miscellaneous Tool Q&As

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This Technical Note contains a collection of archived Q&As relating to a specific topic--questions sent the Developer Support Center (DSC) along with answers from the DSC engineers. Current Q&A's can be found on the Macintosh Technical Q&A's web site. [Oct 01 1990]

PowerBook 140 ROM writes to $0000

Date Written: 11/16/92

Last reviewed: 3/1/93

I just put EvenBetterBusError on my PowerBook, and it seems the PowerBook ROM writes to location $0. Why? This hampers bug testing on the PowerBook.

The current version of EvenBetterBusError (creation date April 8, 1991) isn't compatible with the PowerBook 140, 145, 160, 170, 180 and Duos because of the way the Power Manager implements "power cycling." When a power cycle ends, the Power Manager uses location 0 to restore the processor state.

EvenBetterBusError's author said he'll update his program so it doesn't check for writes to location 0 on PowerBooks that power cycle. Until EvenBetterBusError is updated, turn off Rest Mode when using EvenBetterBusError on PowerBooks that have power cycling. When Rest Mode is turned off, the unit will not power cycle the processor.

Using Discipline with MacsBug

Date Written: 8/12/91

Last reviewed: 9/17/91

At the 1991 WWDC debugging session, mention was made of using Discipline with MacsBug. How this is done? Copies of Discipline on AppleLink and on the Developer CD Series discs never include documentation. When I install Discipline and reboot, I get the "MacsBug Installed" line in the original dialog, but then I always get a "No debugger installed" dialog from Discipline.

Discipline's "No debugger installed" dialog is not a common message, but it can happen if you use try to use old versions of Discipline or MacsBug, or a third-party debugger that isn't compatible with Discipline. Discipline also displays this message if you have Macintosh IIci ROMs in your IIx, and thus it can't tell whether you have a 24-bit or 32-bit machine.

If you're running System 7, you should use MacsBug 6.2.1 or later and Discipline 2.0.1 or later. You might even want to upgrade to Discipline 2.1d1, available on the Essentials*Tools*Objects (ETO) #5 CD.

To use Discipline with MacsBug, put the Discipline system extension into the Extensions folder (in your System Folder), and put the strict or lenient Discipline Startup document into your System Folder. For help on the Discipline commands, simply break into MacsBug and type DSC ? <return>. Pressing return additional times scrolls through the various pages of help.

Our lack of documentation on this tool does make it a little difficult to use. Hopefully we will be addressing that in the near future.

Where to find Discipline module (DSC command)

Date Written: 3/5/91

Last reviewed: 6/20/91

Where can I get the trap Discipline module (DSC command) mentioned in the MacsBug documentation?

Discipline is included with the Essentials*Tools*Objects (E.T.O.) CD starting with #3, and is available on AppleLink.

Where to get third-party XTND translators

Date Written: 9/17/91

Last reviewed: 6/14/93

Where can I find XTND translators for third-party products?

The only XTND translators available from Apple ship with the XTND 1.3 package. You get MacWrite II, MacWrite 5.0, MacPaint, and PICT. To obtain more translators, you can purchase them from one of the companies that sell XTND translators (DataViz is one such company). You can also write your own translators. You might want to write translators for your own products and make them available to other third parties.

The translators that Claris ships with their products were written by Claris and are not currently available for distribution with your products. (However, any of your users who have these Claris translators will be able to use any XTND-aware product you have created with their translators.)

RAMDump and ReAnimator modem & printer nub extensions

Date Written: 10/2/91

Last reviewed: 10/15/91

On the "Desperately Seeking Seven" Developer CD, I found RamDump/ReAnimator, with a thing called ModemNub. The release notes claim documentation is included with it, but there isn't any. Could you possibly round up some documentation?

You can obtain documentation on these utilities from APDA when you purchase RAMDump & ReAnimator v.1.0 (#M7045, $20.00). The trick, however, is that these utilities haven't been updated since October, 1988, so RAMDump 1.0 won't work on the Macintosh IIci or IIfx (RAMDump isn't aware of the floppy controller, thus it can't write to the disk). The revised version of RAMDump that you found on the Desperately Seeking Seven CD should address this problem.

To debug a running program using ReAnimator via two Macintosh systems, you need to have the following setup: Have a host Macintosh running ReAnimator, and the target Mac running the Nub init (modem nub or printer nub, depending on the port you use). This allows the host Mac to stop the target Mac, start it, and read its memory over the serial line. You run the program to be debugged on the target machine. Since ReAnimator is not running on the machine that is being debugged, ReAnimator can use windows and menus without interfering in the debugging process. When debugging a live Macintosh over a serial link, ReAnimator can step, trace, and perform other flow control instructions.

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